Monday, October 31, 2011

Taliban fighters pose with weapons as they sit in their compound at an undisclosed location in southern Afghanistan May 5, 2011.

PAS Youth chief Nasrudin Hassan today denied his movement was a militant Islamist group after it was branded “Taliban” for protesting an Elton John concert to be held in Genting Highlands next month.

PAS Youth has claimed Malaysia was promoting an unhealthy trend by letting an openly gay artiste perform in the country.

“Do not [misunderstand]... we are not Taliban, we have also never copied Taliban’s style. Our views do not mean we are extreme in our actions, we don’t stop anyone from attending concerts or attack anyone [who attends concerts],” Nasrudin said when contacted .

Yesterday, former Perlis mufti Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin hit out at PAS’s vocal youth wing for its “extremist” stand against the popular performer.

Mohd Asri told The Malaysian Insider today he was only advising the Islamist youth wing “not to copy the Taliban” in its objection against Elton John’s concert.

In reply, Nasrudin said Asri was giving the wrong public impression of PAS Youth, and added that the opposition political wing has no power to stop any concert in the country, no matter how improper they think it to be.

“The public must know we object the concert only because we do not agree with it. If they and the government wish to allow the concert to go ahead, we cannot do anything. We have no power to stop it or to cancel it,” Nasrudin said.

The fundamentalist Taliban are a militant political group that governed Afghanistan until its ouster after the country was invaded by a US-led operation.

Its members are involved in terrorism activities and have known ties to the al Qaeda terror network responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.